New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday stayed an order of Orissa High Court which mandates that the migrant workers planning to come to Odisha should be tested negative for COVID-19 before starting their return journey.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and BR Gavai heard a special leave petition filed by the Union government against the order of the High Court and stayed it.
The petitioner submitted that the order of the High Court apart from being unworkable, fails to notice the standard operating procedure already being followed by the Union and the state governments.
“It is humbly submitted that the impugned order further ignores the nature of the present pandemic that the country is dealing with and the delicate handling of the situation by the executive, after consideration of all possible factors. The impugned order clearly impinges upon the executive domain and creates an unreasonable and impossible to perform pre-condition on part of the governments and the migrant workers who wish to travel back to their native places,” the petitioner submitted.
The petitioner also apprised the apex court that the Union and state governments are taking all possible precautions at the stage of boarding, during travel, after de-boarding in every state and the subsequent quarantine phase.
It is to be mentioned here that the Orissa High Court May 7 heard a petition on the return of migrants and passed the order.
“State government should ensure that all the migrants who are in queue to come to Odisha should be tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding the conveyance,” the HC had observed.
